MILAN: Former West Ham striker Marco Borriello said he is determined to disprove claims his stuttering career is over after yet another frustrating spell at struggling Serie A giants Roma.
Borriello completed his return Genoa in January after failing to convince Roma coach Rudi Garcia or sporting director Walter Sabatini, in spite of a number of injuries among the club's forwards, of his worth.
Borriello, who failed to impress during a fruitless six-month spell with the Hammers from January to June 2014, has hit out at claims from Roma fans that he is "finished".
He now hopes to show Roma they were wrong to let him go.
"Some people said I'm finished, that I'm ''na pippa' (totally worthless) as they say in the Roma dialect," Borriello told La Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday.
"Here at Genoa they know me well, the fans appreciate me, the management wanted me here and I want to repay that faith... and above all show that my career is far from over."
Borriello's troubles at Roma began when Claudio Ranieri resigned in February 2011 and Vincenzo Montella took over as caretaker.
"I'd had a good first year at Roma. I remember a statistic saying that I had a better goals average in my first six months than (Gabriel) Batistuta, (Abel) Balbo, (Rudi) Voller and (Francesco) Totti.
"Then Ranieri left, Montella came in as coach and moved Totti into the centre-forward role, and that's when the decline started."
The following season, Luis Enrique was appointed coach and Borriello moved to Juventus, then Genoa, before returning to Roma in July 2013 and then leaving again, for West Ham, barely six months later.
He returned to the capital club last summer, but by then the front line used by new Roma coach Garcia consisted mainly of Gervinho, Adem Ljajic, Totti and Mattia Destro, who is now at AC Milan. In January, Roma drafted in Juan Iturbe, as well as Seydou Doumbia and Victor Ibarbo.
Borriello added: "When the new management team came to the club it was clear for me: from their first press conference Sabatini labelled me a 'problem'.
"Then they brought in a number of forwards: (Dani) Osvaldo, (Mattia) Destro, (Fabio) Borini and (Seydou) Doumbia, and I, without really being given the chance to show what I could do, was left third or fourth choice."
Borriello is now in his third spell with Gian Piero Gasperini's Genoa side having played at the Ligurian coast club in 2007-2008 and 2012-2013.
Although he has failed to score in four appearances so far, he is on a strict diet of "hard work" and "sacrifice" as he bids to relaunch his career.
"I know what I need to get back on track: to work hard and to get used to sweating again. You need to make sacrifices, and Gasperini's training sessions make you suffer," he said.
"I know one thing for sure: whenever I'm a regular starter I've always scored in the double figures.
"I haven't had the opportunities lately, but the only way you can silence your detractors is by showing what you can do as a player."
Genoa, who sit ninth in Serie A, host Udinese on Saturday.
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